ABSTRACT
By limiting the present comparative study to the narrow field defined by the works on St. Francis and Milarepa up to and including their “standard versions,” it has been possible to present a systematic, philologically and historically grounded cross-cultural analysis of the dynamics of legitimation that characterize and inform all these hagiographical productions. Although famous within their respective cultural milieus, as well as among scholars in medieval and Tibetan studies, St. Francis and Milarepa, and their respective narrative traditions, are clearly not intended here as representative of all medieval Christians or Tibetan Buddhist hagiographical productions. Nevertheless, the cross-cultural dynamics that are discerned here through the analysis of these hagiographical traditions offer a paradigmatic example of the polemical creative processes that characterize the production, circulation, and reception of the life narratives of saints.
